


Living and Learning

by Kaoupa



Series: A Pink Planet [5]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Humans and Gems coexisting, No War AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-27 14:09:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17768252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaoupa/pseuds/Kaoupa
Summary: Pink Diamond has high hopes for her newest project on Earth, and has been waiting for some time. But progress is slow, despite her hopes, and some things just can't be done (or fixed) overnight.But she has her own colony, humanity's safe, and the other Diamonds are willing to let her do what she wants as long as her methods produce everything they require from her. Even if she can only talk to Pearl most of the time, that's got to count for something, right?





	1. Chapter 1

It had been a long day for Pink Diamond, even though she didn’t need to sleep.

Most days, she just remained up in the Moon Base with Pearl, and the two would work together on the paperwork needed to keep Earth running, occasionally going down to the observation orb to see how everyone on Earth was doing.

And today, she had been called down for an advance on her… _personal project._

If only the rest of the day had gone as well as that had.

  
  


There was a small habitat in front of her, filled with short creatures, which seemed to be concentrating in one of the corners. They looked like the “maggots” found on Earth, which Pink thought were rather unjustly hated (even if the flies they grew into could be very annoying with their buzzing).

“So these… Crystal Shrimp incorporate light and organic matter together?”

“Yes, my Diamond!” The Danburite said, nodding swiftly. “It took us quite some time to work out how to render them capable of incorporating our… well, our hard light, into them. I’m just grateful you were able to request so many gem shards from the other Diamonds for our experiments!”

Pink Diamond tried not to wince. There were plenty of gems who were shattered in honest accidents, weathering, or just doing something that went against the Empire in a way that couldn’t be ignored and wasn't justified. But she was fairly certain that the other Diamonds would have ordered the shattering of at least one gem who could have been spared due to the requirements for her project. Well, there wasn’t really anything she could do about that. And they probably would have just shattered them anyways...

“What can they do?” She asked, hoping to draw her mind off the morbid subject. While incorporating light and flesh together successfully at all was amazing progress, she didn’t know of any gems that didn’t possess some form of power, even if it was just something like additional durability. If the Shrimp couldn’t do something more than their organic forebears, then…

_SCREEECH!!_

Pink jumped a good five feet in the air, with her Pearl rapidly looking around behind her, to try and find the source of the noise.

Both of them noticed quickly, though, that the Danburite didn’t seem to have reacted at all beyond a wince.

“Apologies, your radiance, but can this wait? They’ve escaped again…” The Danburite looked thoroughly exasperated as she took out a device that lit up around her arm, before starting to tap away at it. A series of alarms went off throughout the facility, and inside the area where the Crystal Shrimp were.

As Pink Diamond and her Pearl looked back into the enclosure, they noticed something that had not been apparent before.

The Crystal Shrimp had been covering up a roughly-hewn hole in the floor. And most of them had vanished or were in the process of vanishing down it.

  
  
  


Several hours later, the last of the extremely sharp-edged organic light Shrimp were recaptured and placed in another pen. Judging by how resigned the human and Quartz guards seemed to be, and how Danburite had said the anti-light cells didn’t do much more than tickle the Shrimp, and the metal cells that could usually hold organic beings didn’t seem to do more than slow them down a little… Well, Pink Diamond was certain it would not be the last pen that had to be replaced.

She’d have to assign a few of the workers to find a way that could contain them more thoroughly.

“So, you’re saying that they seem to be adapting every time you try to contain them?” She questioned.

“Yes, my Diamond.” the Grape Agate standing next to Danburite sighed. “The traditional gem containment cells do not stop them, and their edges, well, as you have no doubt noticed are sharp. They can bore their way through the materials we use for building construction with enough time, and careless contact with them can damage everyone in the facility - with the exception of you.” She added. “I’ve got several guards currently regenerating or in the medical wing thanks to them, and there was almost a fatality with one of my human guards two days ago! If only someone had listened to me when I said we should get rid of them...” She glowered at the Danburite, who glared back defiantly.

“We can’t destroy them! They’re the furthest we’ve come in four hundred years in mixing organic and gem life!” The Danburite snapped. “And, well, they’re seemingly intelligent!”

“They can’t communicate with us, though.” Pearl interjected.

Pink Diamond tried not to glare at the Danburite when she ignored Pearl’s statement. “They’re not sapient, my Diamond, despite the seeming gem growths on their bodies. However, I find it safe to say that they are far more intelligent than any Earth animal, given that they’ve escaped so many times.”

“Or it could just be they decided they’re not going to be locked up, and they’ve realized that if they scratch at the walls enough they can escape. Oh joy, they’re capable of _remembering things_.” Grape Agate looked very annoyed. “My Diamond, I understand this is important, but I must insist you let us take further precautions. They’re escaping more and more frequently thanks to the tests amplifying their gem sides and their sharpness increases with their magic. If things keep going like this, there is _going_ to be a shattering due to these things sooner rather than later.”

Pink Diamond nodded. “Very well. I’ll assign a few peridots to building a containment pen for them with stronger materials. If needed, we can use some of the warship-grade armor for it, or create a pit under it if they try to escape.”

The Grape Agate looked visibly relieved, and bowed deeply. “Thank you, your Radiance. Your wisdom has blessed me and all in this facility. May I go see the status of my soldiers, with your permission?”

Pink Diamond nodded. “Go on ahead.” The Agate nodded in turn, bowing again. “May your glory shine throughout your world as it does here, Pink Diamond.” Walking off, Pink Diamond saw her, out of the corner of her eye, slump in what was probably relief. At what, she couldn’t say.

  
  
  


“Excellent progress! So, do you think we could do it anytime soon with other organics what you have done with these… Shrimp?” Pink Diamond asked eagerly.

The Danburite’s smile that had come up from speaking to her Diamond - who _approved of her work!_ \- vanished almost instantly. Pink wondered if she had pushed her luck too far. Quickly, the scientist gem sighed and began to speak again.

“My Diamond, I understand why this is important to the Empire. Our facility’s Morganite has constantly told us. Finding a way to create new gems - _citizens_ without having to rely on non-renewable resources is…” She shook her head, a smile spreading across her face. “It would be the biggest breakthrough of the last… I don’t even _know_ how long!”

Pink Diamond did not give voice to the idea that it would probably only be considered a revolutionary breakthrough on Earth, and possibly to other gems who liked organic beings.

The Danburite shrugged. “But, well, for some reason, your brilliance, among the Diamonds you are the first one who came up with and approved of the idea. I apologize for the fact that we’re taking so long, but organics need time to grow and progress. We have to observe them for the entire period they do, so even with the help of the humans there’s only so much we can do quickly.”

“The humans are helping?” Pearl spoke up, before hastily closing her mouth as the Danburite looked at her oddly.

“Er, as I was saying, I took your suggestion to incorporate their help into our project, my Diamond. And they’ve helped us make good progress! There’s a settlement nearby, where we now have seven hundred and fifty-two additional scientists in addition to the eighty-seven Ambers here! They’ve accelerated many of our timetables, even if they can only work less than half as much as we do individually…” Shaking her head and muttering something about sleep, the Danburite returned to her report.

“Anyways, even if they cannot work as hard as we do, they often tend to come up with the oddest ideas for what we could do for research. The ideas don’t always turn out to be useful, but there are multiple breakthroughs we wouldn’t have gotten without them.”

Pink Diamond looked simultaneously pleased and annoyed. “I appreciate that the humans are fitting in, Danburite. But is there any progress, in, well, incorporating _us_ and _them_ together?”

Danburite paused for several seconds before she spoke.

“We are saving that for later, my Diamond. The main reason we chose to begin with work on the Shrimp, was because they are one of the simpler life-forms on Earth, and because they go through their life cycles so quickly. We could see the results of our experiments more quickly, and what would happen as a result. Humans are… they take far longer to mature physically and mentally. And their bodies are far more complex.”

“Why not just focus on understanding them instead of the Shrimp, then? There are plenty of humans passing away every year…” Pink Diamond grimaced.

“My Diamond, well… there are no true records in the Empire on how organics work besides those we have on this colony. At least, none that we have been able to access, so we have had to determine how they function on our own. The only hybrid of human and gem we know of…” Danburite paused. “She has refused to let us do more than active scans of her body and take a few blood and cell samples for the entire project.”

Briefly, Pink Diamond’s mind passed to the Aquamarine who had given birth, more than five hundred years ago, as well as her husband. And to the young woman who had taken her position twenty-five years afterwards. And later, how she had worked her way up the ranks, to become her chief human-gem relations diplomat. “I’ll see if there’s anything I can do to get her to come in more for comparison work.”

“Thank you, your-” The Danburite began.

“Please, just call me Pink.” Pink Diamond replied, exhaling in annoyance. (She had learned that way of expressing herself from humanity, and a lot of other Earthborn gems had started recognizing it as well).

“...Very well, Pink.” The Danburite looked incredibly awkward as she tested the phrase. “I’m sorry if it seems like I am making excuses. But we are, well, basically creating an entirely new field of science here, and what you’ve asked of us is basically the current end goal for it. We have to build the foundations for it first, and there is a great deal of information we have to work through before we can try to create more hybrids without it being a certain shattering for somebody. Just trying to intertwine us and them together just doesn’t work, so we are trying to work out the issues with other creatures first. And, I have to ask, couldn’t we just ask the other Diamonds for more assis-”

“They’re not interested.” Pink Diamond cut in. “They don’t care about trying out new methods of creating gems when they think that the ones we have now already work so well. When Yellow’s and my first attempt to grow a gem in a human, well… you know what happened. Yellow Diamond wasn’t interested afterwards in any of it.”

The Danburite looked visibly disturbed, but nodded. “We’ll do our best, my - Pink. But all I can say for certain at the moment is that we’ve been making progress.”

“That’s good enough for now. Have your supervisor send up any information that you’ve gathered you think could be used to improve the efficiency of gem production.” And, walking away, Pink Diamond felt the day had overall, while tiring, been more good than bad.  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearl sends for a friend of hers she thinks can be trusted to handle the construction. Said friend gets sidetracked with her and Pink very quickly.

As Pink Diamond walked out into the area around the facility, hoping that the Crystal Shrimp would be recaptured without anyone getting hurt in the future, she absently noticed Pearl, off to her side, tapping out something on the pad she was carrying. “Pearl? If we have enough of them to spare, have the Jade in charge of them send ten Peridots to build a new pen for those Shrimp. The sooner the better.”

Pearl, who had already brought up a form, sighed as she looked over it. “We only have two Peridots who are available at the moment. The pen is not going to be too technological, I would imagine... perhaps we should send Bismuths instead to replace the ones who cannot come? I know of some who could be trusted.” Pearl replied from her side. 

Pink blinked, before nodding down at her friend/”secretary”. “Actually, that works better! Send the orders, please.”

Nodding absently, Pearl typed in the orders from her Diamond that she had come up with, and tapped the screen twice, before starting to type again.

  
  
  


_ Facet 17 _

Sighing as she laid down on the rest pad she had gotten installed in her room/hole, Bismuth relaxed and let the quiet wash over her, enjoying the break after a long work period.

Then, her work pouch started releasing a quiet buzz.

Blinking, Bismuth absently reached down and pulled it up. The only people who should have her communicator’s combination number should have been the other Bismuths, her supervisor who had just seen her off, and a couple of her human coworkers who should probably be sleeping right now. 

There was that Pearl she’d met at the human-gem “choosening” bar, though...

That had been a fun night, even if she hadn’t managed to get her to say who she worked for. And that was who it appeared to be! She hadn’t heard from her in a few months, though, her “owner” must have been keeping her busy. And all it had was a phrase.

“I’m sorry, but they needed help?” She read to herself.

“Alright, everyone, get up and move! We’ve got new orders!” Groans filled the room as the Pink Granite’s yell came through. From both Bismuths who had been previously enjoying their breaks, or humans who had been trying to sleep and had just been woken up rudely.

“It’s break time!” Someone yelled. Bismuth couldn’t tell who had said it.

The Granite scowled. “Get up NOW, the lot of you! Rush job, ordered by Pink Diamond!”

The groans vanished as both the humans and gems hastily got up, and went towards their cubbies, fishing out their personalized tools and anything they might need.

Muttering angrily under her breath, Bismuth got up from her bunk, cursing mentally the Diamond who had decided that her needs took precedent over theirs.

A minute later, the construction crew stood organized in a few rows, with a few of them making the Diamond salute to their supervisor, who looked over them and nodded. “All right, everyone, we’ve got a special job! Now, who here’s heard of Coral?”

There was a baffled silence, as the construction workers all looked at each other. “It’s a calcium carbonate growth made from organics who make it with minerals from the water around them over time, so they can live in it?” One of the Bismuths replied in a guessing tone.

The Granite shook her head. “No… well, yes, but not for this. It’s a project, started by Pink Diamond herself! The entire site has been locked down for the last five hundred years, and almost nobody knows for sure what’s going on in there. And apparently, her Radiance decided that we’re needed there to build something!”

The annoyance in Bismuth’s head curled up into its usual hole in the corner, with her curiosity taking its place. 

Gem architecture was absurdly sturdy, and there was no way that a research facility that had been around for five hundred years, authorized by Pink Diamond herself, had used the less-durable building materials. And places like that usually had their own building teams, if they were the sort of place who expected that things would go wrong a lot or would need repairs. And if they were under a Diamond’s eye, then there was no way they weren’t getting anything they needed for research or safety measures.

What exactly would a site like that need them for?

  
  
  
  
  


_ Coral Project Site _

“Hello, everyone!” Pink Diamond beamed out at the crew of Bismuths, humans, Peridots, and the Pink Granite who Pearl had called to help her on short notice. While all of them gave her the traditional salute back, she noticed that a few of them seemed to be… yawning, it was called?

Pearl began to speak from besides her. “We apologize for summoning you during your time off, but-”

“They were on break, Pearl?” Pink Diamond replied, looking at her with a frown.

“Yes, they were, My Diamond.” The Pink Granite quickly cut in, “But they were ready to go as soon as I mentioned that you had ordered us to come!”

A few mutters spread throughout the crowd, and none of the people there argued. But very few of them looked too happy. Their leader looked surprised.

“Um, good. Well, then, all of you, go inside and speak with the Grape Agate. She should be able to tell you what’s needed. Pearl, we should talk…”

As the group walked inside, the two gems who had called them there stepped in after them patiently.

  
  
  


 

Bismuth had to admit, even if she was annoyed at being called when she was supposed to be resting, at least she had been called in for something unusual.

Those Shrimp things making a jailbreak attempt (apparently those were something they were  _ making _ here?) had helped, too. Smashing a few of those had been therapeutic! Even if that Danburite had started yelling at her, saying things like “years worth of labor” before the Grape Agate had cut her off.

But then she had been left behind by Pink Granite, getting ordered to clean up the mess the splattered Shrimp had made on the floor.

“Fracking Granites, fracking break-breaker Diamond…” Bismuth muttered to herself under her breath as she used a mop to clean up what remained of the Shrimp’s ichor on the ground.

“Well, that’s hardly the worst thing I’ve ever been called.”

“I maintain that male entirely deserved me stabbing him for calling you a wife-stealing rakshasi. Especially after  _ how _ he treated his wife.” A exhausted sigh accompanied the voice, clearly not from the same person.

If she had possessed internal organs, Bismuth’s heart would have metaphorically dropped into her feet right there.

Because Pink Diamond and her Pearl had just entered the room. 

She had heard horror stories about the Diamonds and how they were known to treat dissidents. And she had just insulted one within said Diamond’s earshot.

And she knew that even if everyone on Earth, and many gems off it said Pink Diamond was the nicest of the four, to most loyalists on Homeworld this would more than qualify as a shatterable offense.

“Pink Diamond! I am sorry, I didn’t see you there, I was speaking out of anger, I wasn’t thinking clear-” Bismuth hated the idea of kissing up to an upper-crust, in general, but she wasn’t in any great rush to be shattered prematurely. Or at all, frankly.

To her surprise, the 12-foot tall gem just waved half-heartedly. If there was any anger there, it was concealed well enough she couldn’t tell it was there in the first place. “Don’t worry! I’ve heard worse. Why are you even here, Bismuth?” The Diamond seemed confused.

Bismuth blinked, mentally deciding honesty should be best - it seems the stories about Pink Diamond had been more accurate than she’d dare hope. “Ugh. My Granite told me to clean this up - I splattered one of those Shrimp everywhere earlier when it went after us. What even was that thing?” She started to mop the floor again.

“A prototype combination of organic matter and gem hard light, Bismuth.” Pearl replied without missing a beat.

Bismuth’s head shot back up towards the Diamond and Pearl. “A WHAT?!”

“I suppose that was supposed to be a secret, could you keep it to yourself, please? At least, don’t tell anyone unless they ask.” Pink Diamond asked politely, not really noticing how Bismuth’s mind had gone into shock at first.

After several seconds without a reply, though, she did notice. “Is something wrong?”

“I - that’s possible? I didn’t think that was possible without someone, well, dying!” Bismuth asked in amazement.

“Well, at the moment it is. That’s why we needed you and the others here to build that pen - we can’t have the Shrimp escaping and causing trouble while they’re still being studied.”  Pearl calmly stated.

“I - wow, no wonder this place is secret, Pearl. Wait,  _ you _ needed me?” Bismuth asked, before looking a little harder at the other Gem. Earlier, she had been focusing on her annoyance at the Diamond and barely noticed her assistant, but now…

“Hey, didn’t we meet once?” Pearl looked surprised, then looked at her closely too. Her face brightened swiftly. 

“We did! Yes, what was the name of that place...” Pearl remembered meeting Bismuth now! But… what was the name of that place she’d met her, again? It’d be in the back of her mind all day if she didn’t remember.

Pink Diamond looked surprised, then gleeful. “Pearl, did you start going on dates with other gems without telling me first?”

Pearl’s face went blue, and she completely forgot the name of the place she had met Bismuth as she started to stutter at her boss/lover’s insinuination.

  
  
  


Several minutes later, the floor had been cleaned, and Bismuth, Pink, and Pearl had all more or less forgotten what they were supposed to be doing in favor of talking.

“-And so, this guy decides right after he’s drunk four ales that he’s going to try and seduce me! And he said it to this lady right by my face, that he was going to try and do me before the night was over. I told him he’s had too much to drink - he agreed!” Bismuth continued, recounting the story of the night she and Pearl had met.

“Oh…  _ oh my _ …” Pink looked to be concealing her chuckles, and she was doing a poor job of it.

“And that’s when he passed out, and I called the bouncer.” Bismuth finished.

“And that’s when I went over and helped her put him in the ‘soberator.’” Pearl finished. “And then, we started talking, and that’s how I knew she could be trusted.”

“Heh! You’ve got yourself a good Pearl helping you, y’know.”

“I know, Bismuth.” Pink replied, smiling. It was odd, but she almost… knew, this gem, it felt like. Not personally - but there was a connection she felt to her already, and it seemed to be mutual. “Well, it has been nice talking, Bismuth. But I should probably head back to the Moon, there’s no end to work…”

“Ugh. I know, right? It’s one thing after another, for us builders…” Bismuth muttered. “I know that it’s part of life here, and I love living here rather than some boring place where all the upper crusts can shatter anyone they want for something minor. My Diamond.” She hastily added, then shook her head. “But I have had to fix the outsides of every other fracking upper crust building on this planet because of weather, animals, or  _ something _ . Usually because their owners ignored all the warnings about natural disasters or weather, and  _ how it could affect them over time _ .”

“UGH.” Pink groaned. “I know, every time Yellow and Blue come to visit or send somebody they’re complaining about how ‘your colony’s appearance doesn’t match the standards of our Empire…’”

“Wait - seriously?” Bismuth was surprised, to say the least. Even if Pink Diamond was not like the others, she would have thought that her colony’s leader would have taken the side of the only other gems of her type there were, not that of a 'lowly' worker.

“YES! I mean, they should look nice, I agree, but they’re buildings! People are supposed to be focusing on, well, the inside!” Pink Diamond looked just as annoyed as Bismuth.

“Yeah. Wish I could focus on building something that won’t have people telling me within a few centuries ‘hey, this doesn’t work now!’ for once.” Bismuth sighed. “Something, like, that’s actually interesting.”

Pink Diamond looked thoughtful for a second. So did Pearl.

“Well, what do you want to build, Bismuth?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bismuth is tagged in the original concept as the Royal Blacksmith, and this is how I think she's started down that path.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pink Diamond is a leader, and sometimes is required to do things she doesn't want to do. In theory, being a galactic overlord/leader is supposed to be simple. 
> 
> But "simple" only works as long as you don't care about the people who serve you. And even the most well-meaning leaders can find themselves making moral compromises.

There were a lot of gem emergence holes in the hills around the Coral facility.

It wasn’t surprising, really. Humans could be born almost anywhere, simply by moving their incubation tanks or by having their mothers move. Which was at least part of the reason that the human town where all the scientists and workers for Coral lived within two hours walking distance of Coral, and had set the facility itself up as a medical center. The more knowledge they could gather, the better things would go.

However, gems were stationary once they had been injected. And while Homeworld was quite advanced, the workers saw moving the complex equipment that would be needed to analyze the incubating gems on a daily basis to be a waste of energy that could easily be avoided.

What would be surprising to most gems, though, was that the hills around the Coral facility were still green.

“Isn’t it beautiful, Pearl?” Pink smiled as she looked at the mossy rocks around her, with the holes around them being filled up slowly, and trickles running down from a few places where water had collected higher up.

“In its own way, yes.” Pearl smiled upwards, at both her Diamond and the slowly-healing area around them. “I wish it had more flowers, though…”

Pink Diamond frowned. “Well, they should return again eventually. I hope…”

“All right, you’re all doing good work here! If we can keep this up, this place will be ready to go again soon!” As both Pearl and Pink stopped walking upon hearing the familiar voice, a squadron of Rose Quartzes came around the corner, and all stopped mid-step. “Pink Diamond!” They chorused as one.

“Hello, my Quartzes! Is replanting going well?” Pink felt herself perk up a bit seeing the gems who had been given the responsibility of “reseeding” the Kindergartens every time they were used.

“It goes smoothly. We should be able to get it so that complex life can be reintroduced into the area within the next two hundred and fifty cycles.” The Rose Quartz at the front replied loyally. She frowned after that, though. “I have to ask though, were the old Kindergarten methods necessary to use? This place is...” she looked around.

“It was thriving here before you decided to put  _ three times _ more gems in incubation than everyone told you the life here could possibly take!” Another one of the Rose Quartzes shouted.

Pink winced. The other Rose Quartzes glared at the one who had spoken up against their leader. But none of them disagreed. Neither did Pearl. Or her.

“Well, in her defense, we were not the ones who wanted to put them in there all at once.” Pearl sighed as she spoke, catching the attention of the Quartzes. Then, she paused. “Well, not at  _ first _ .” 

  
  
  
  
  


_ Surveying the landscape before her with thinly-veiled disgust, Yellow Diamond wondered why Pink saw it as necessary to do this. “Pink, you must know that this is a waste of time. Time and energy that could be put to use elsewhere.” _

_ “But Yellow, we’re producing gems as fast as ever!” The smaller Diamond protested from next to her. “Everything’s going as scheduled, and-” _

_ “And your slow growth methods for gems have done almost  _ nothing _ to aid in the expansion of the Empire over the last four thousand years.” Yellow stated flatly. “You have taken _ five  _ colonies in the entirety of that time! And of them, only one is producing more than a trickle of gems even when compared to this planet.” _

_ “My methods are slower, yes, and I know that. But my worlds are still capable of carrying life that we can use to reseed the Kindergartens. Kindergartens that can produce gems for the rest of time if we are careful.” Pink countered. “Which is far more than you can say for any life that used to be on any of your former colonies.” _

_ “ _ Organic _ life, Pink.” Yellow scowled. “Impermanent and gone before we can even see any true lasting benefit from it. Life that must constantly dedicate itself to worthless usages of its time to even be functional before it can benefit something greater!” _

_ “Life that is part of the reason my worlds have been happy and thriving for the last four thousand years while more and more of your worlds have been abandoned and deemed useless to our people.” Pink remembered that world she had first asked Yellow for a colony on all those years ago, trying to get her attention when she had been commanding dropships to go down and eliminate the native life. At least the moon there had been passed over... _

_ “Worlds that produced more individually in a thousand years than all of yours together have in four times that.” Yellow looked amused. “Worlds that helped our Empire grow instead of letting it stagnate in its place and focus on amusing their citizens. Worlds who do not let the organics and  _ off colors _ walk among them.” _

_ Some of those ideas passed through both Pearl and Pink’s minds.  _

_ Ideas like the rejected gems that had slowly settled down and hidden across Earth, safe from scrutiny, free to love and exist. Of a few times the two of them had started... _

_ Ideas like the music and instruments they had seen and heard played. Of festivals celebrating both the start of life and the end of it. Celebrating for the sake of celebration. The remembering, of many cultures, that everything was bound together, and that everything was interdependent on everything else.  _

_ All things that it seemed the rest of the Empire had forgotten. “Organics and citizens who are happy. Who do not serve because they are told to, but because they wish to.”  _

_ Yellow Diamond just sighed. “I see this conversation is pointless. You are-” _

_ “Standing on  _ my own world _ , Yellow. Not yours.” Pink’s eyes had narrowed. “White has given me permission to run my worlds as I see fit, as long as I produce what is needed. I have not produced gems as fast as she would like in the short term, but she has agreed to let it pass as long as more are produced long-term than would be otherwise.” _

_ For the first time in that conversation, Yellow Diamond smiled. Pink Diamond and Pearl both felt unease pass through them. The last time Yellow Diamond had smiled around them was when White Diamond had forced Pink to hollow out one of her colonies to boost gem production. “I have orders from White that came earlier that say otherwise.” _

_ Eyes widening, Pearl opened her information tablet without prompting before handing it to Pink. Pink Diamond took it without saying anything, eyes passing over the new message. It was indeed from White. _

_ “Gem production rates on your colonies are currently unacceptably low, despite their confirmed long-term sustainability. Production is to be increased by 4.85% within the next millenia.” Pink winced. This was going to cause problems. _

_ “I’ll start looking for gems who are willing to go searching for a new colony world, then.” Pink replied, already dreading everything that would come in the search for a rare world with life on it, or a “short-term” planet - _

_ “No.” Pink felt shock spread through her at that. “White has decided that your methods will only be allowed to contribute to the Empire further if we are able to determine they can be replicated on our other worlds with lesser levels of organic life levels, and are able to be proved useful.” Nodding down at the pad she was holding, Yellow Diamond walked off, followed by her Pearl, who looked as pompous as her mistress acted. _

_ Pink and Pearl looked at the pad again, and tapped it, projecting the entire message into the air in front of them. What Yellow Diamond had said was there. _

_ A minute later, after both of them were certain, the taller one spoke. “Pearl… do you have any ideas?” Pink Diamond asked. _

_ “All of the Kindergartens on the colonies under your supervision are already at maximum sustainable production. To go any further… it would start to damage the area like the old methods.” Pearl looked down and frowned. “We will need to have at least fifty Kindergartens increase production to unsafe levels to avoid doing possibly permanent damage to the nearby landscapes for at least one.” _

_ “At least 35 percent of the lines produced should consist of additional Rose Quartzes. Their duties after emerging will be to focus on healing the damage to the Kindergartens as quickly as possible.” Pink stated. _

_ “Understood. I will send orders also to the rest of your colonies, to spread out the production among them.” Pearl sighed. _

_ Then, Pink stopped. “Actually… Pearl, how many Kindergartens would we need to produce all of those gems, if we decided to just have them all produced in as few as possible?” _

_ Pearl blinked. “I think we would only need… one. But what we have learned from the studies of our methods and the effects of the standard Kindergarten indicate that it would likely render the area around it completely incapable of bearing complex life again.” Running a few calculations through her head, she nodded. “Yes. If we did that, we would likely have to abandon the area for use in gem production, crop growing, and other uses.” _

_ “That’s what we’ve been told, yes. Could it be possible for us to have the Rose Quartzes using their powers while the gems are incubating, instead of before then?” Pink Diamond questioned. _

_ “In… theory, yes we could. But the incubating gems would just absorb all of the life force they tried to put back into the ground! At least, in... theory.” Realizing what Pink intended as she spoke, Pearl began to speak up. “You’re doing what the other Diamonds want, Pink?!” Pearl looked shocked, before sighing. “Are you certain that this is the way you want to give them what they’re asking?” _

_ “Call up the Rose Quartzes and all of our Kindergarten developers as soon as they’re available.” Pink replied, a look of determination in her eyes. “If we can replant the Kindergarten after something like this, we can do it anywhere we want to.” _

_ “And… if it doesn’t work, then there’s always a fallback plan.” Pearl sighed as she typed in her orders. “If it’s irretrievable, then we could always use it as an example of why our methods should be stuck to.” _

_ The Diamond just nodded with a dark look on her face. _


End file.
